Belongs within: Pezizales.
Thecotheus is a genus of fungi often found growing on animal dung.
Characters (from Yao & Spooner 2000): Apothecia sessile, globose to subglobose or cylindrical, rarely pulvinate to lenticular at first, becoming cupulate to discoid, white, becoming grey, yellow, orange to brownish; ectal excipulum of textura angularis and medullary excipulum of textura intricata and textura globulosa; asci operculate, cylindric, 4- to 32-spored (rarely 64-spored), wall amyloid, protruding from the hymenium at maturity; ascospores ellipsoid, rarely subglobose, eguttulate, hyaline to pale yellow, smooth or ornamented with granules or warts, having polar apiculi in some species, with a thick mucilaginous perisporic layer; paraphyses filiform, septate, hyaline or sometimes containing purple-brown granules.
<==Thecotheus Boud. 1869 (see below for synonymy)KC01 |--T. africanusNU03 |--T. biocellatusNU03 |--T. cinereusNU03 |--T. crustaceus [=Ascophanus crustaceus; incl. T. agranulosus]NU03 |--T. flavidusNU03 |--T. formosanusNU03 |--T. harasisusNU03 |--T. himalayensisNU03 |--T. holmskjoldiiNU03 |--T. inaequilateralisNU03 |--T. keithiiNU03 |--T. lindqvistiiNU03 |--T. pallensNU03 |--T. phycophilusNU03 |--T. rivicolaNU03 |--T. uncinatusNU03 |--T. urinamans Nagao, Udagawa & Bougher in Nagao, Udagawa et al. 2003NU03 `--T. viridescensNU03
Thecotheus Boud. 1869 [incl. Ascophanella Faurel & Schotter 1965, Ascophanopsis Faurel & Schotter 1965, Gymnodiscus Zukal 1887 non Less. 1831, Zukalina Kuntze 1891]KC01
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[KC01] Kirk, P. M., P. F. Cannon, J. C. David & J. A. Stalpers. 2001. Ainsworth & Bisby’s Dictionary of the Fungi 9th ed. CAB International: Wallingford (UK).
[NU03] Nagao, H., S. Udagawa, N. L. Bougher, A. Suzuki & I. C. Tommerup. 2003. The genus Thecotheus (Pezizales) in Australia: T. urinamans sp. nov. from urea-treated jarrah (Eucalyptus marginatus) forest. Mycologia 95 (4): 688–693.
Yao, Y.-J., & B. M. Spooner. 2000. Notes on British species of Thecotheus (Ascobolaceae, Pezizales), with reference to other species of the genus. Kew Bulletin 55 (2): 451–457.